Full Auto Ross? (now with pic)

stormbringer

stormbringer

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
19   0   0
Location
S.W. Ontario
An EESA member just came back from a visit to the Ottawa War Museum.

He went for a tour of the armouries........

One of the pictures he took was of what I swear is a pair of ROSS RILFES that were FULL AUTO and had DRUM MAGAZINES!

He indicated that I was correct and that he was told that they were a couple from 6 examples there were made.

Has anyone here heard of this?
 
Never heard of Ross rifle conversions. Mind you, it doesn't surprise me. Every country was working at making semi-auto and FA firearms out of their existing bolt actions.
 
I have handled one. Its currently at a reserve unit in BC.

Weighs about 20lbs I think and is anything but ergonomic. But its an interesting experiment.

There is a massive tube over the barrel and a cover over the action. It works somewhat like an SKS.
 
The full auto Ross is called the Huot mechanism.
It even been close to be in production.
It was designed by Joseph Alphonse Huot and was patented (Pat No. 193,724 March 8, 1917 and Pat No. 193,725 Nov. 4th, 1919).
It was using a gas-operated piston mounted on the left-side of the firearm, and was based on the Ross Mk III, with a rotary magazine.
Itwas rejected by D.O.W. of Britain on April 11th, 1918.Tests were conducted at Enfield showed there was thirteen unsatisfactory points, wich could have been fixed with little work. The end of WWI put the final nail in the project coffin and Huot (in face of it's the investors) was in deep debts at this point. The Govt never really helped him out.
Huot was involdved in Canadian automatic firearm program 'til the "40s, but nothing came out of that (is it unusal in Canada?).
He died in 1947.
 
When I did a tour they showed me a bag of parts for a prototype Ross pistol. I think thats as far as it got.......
 
Can we see?

stormbringer said:
An EESA member just came back from a visit to the Ottawa War Museum.

He went for a tour of the armouries........

One of the pictures he took was of what I swear is a pair of ROSS RILFES that were FULL AUTO and had DRUM MAGAZINES!

He indicated that I was correct and that he was told that they were a couple from 6 examples there were made.

Has anyone here heard of this?
Click to expand...
 
H Wally said:
Pics Pics Pics!!!!
Click to expand...

They just arrived.

P1020168.jpg


IS that an EM2 on the far left next to what might be a Type 97?
 
It is an EM-2. Wish I had kept mine, but if you have the FRT disc it in on there. One of my mistakes in life.....selling it.
SO NICE to see the stuff in the CWM in racks and not crammed in the compactor as it was before. The old arms room was a disgrace.
 
Huot Mechanism pic

I can feed up some images of the Huot;

huotmechanism.jpg


Huot (top) compared to the Lewis machine-gun (bottom)

huotvsbren1.jpg

huotvsbren2.jpg


And a later prototype; the Huot-Prefontaine

huotprefontaine.jpg
 
Last edited:
they made them, if i remember correctly they were looking for a light machine gun and a Scottsman turned them into that. problem was that they jammed bad with dirt when were a bolt action gun, with a machine gun it was even worse if dirt got in there.
 
Dirt was not a problem with the Huot, the action was completely enclosed. The problem was the war ended before they were needed in quantity.
 
Talquin,

The inventor, Joseph Alphonse Huot was a french Canadian from St-Etienne-De-Lauzon, in Quebec and he was born on September 26th, 1878.
He developped the mechanism using a .32 caliber rifle while living in South Dunham (Monteregie, Quebec).
After moving in Richmond, in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, he applied the mechanism to the Ross Mk III.

Here's a picture of the inventor, took April 28th 1918, while he was in London
huot1918.jpg
 
When tested in comparison with the Lewis, the Huot was less accurate. It was, however, lighter, handier, and just as reliable. Perhaps if the design had been perfected earlier, or if the war had continued, something might have come from the design.
Note that the Huot uses a gun driven magazine, and has a Lewis type cooling system.
 
From what I've read, the Huot was really reliable. Passed all its trials and tests, but the war ended and it was passed up, while huot basically was out cash on what he thought was a sure thing and got left behind.


Edit - the ottawa war museum.... I take it close up pics of the gun and the action aren't allowed?

Would be fun to get some good up close and personal pictures of that action and how it works....
 
Last edited:
Thank you, you have answered a question that has been perplexing me for 42 years.

I remember as a kid when I was given a Ross M10 and I started hunting with it, sitting on a stump speculating on how it could be made into a machine gun.

I was an avid reader and had studied everything I could find in print on machine guns. I figured there had to be some kind of way to have a gas-bleed mechanism that would cycle the straigt bolt.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom